Aug 24th: From The Debs (Ft Morgan Team Leads)
It was a Turtle Tuesday on Fort Morgan!
A fisherman stopped Marci and Judy on patrol and had hooked a turtle. Alyssa, the intern from BSNWR came out and efforts were made to free the beautiful turtle from the hook. The decision was made to take her to the Gulfarium for them to work their magic. Thanks to Marci and Judy for staying with the distressed fisherman and turtle and Rick and Barb who came to help. Rick worked diligently to try to free her. It was confirmed to be a Kemps Ridley. AND it was Marci’s first time to see a live adult turtle.
We started off with a perfect excavation on A 41 with only 3 unhatched eggs and several babies to the delight of volunteers and visitors alike. Jane went to check on A42 which had made no noise and was about to decide nothing was going to happen when heads popped up. Of course she was there by herself so she started calling in reinforcements. She had not seen a boil yet this year and these babies made up for it. Approx 106 babies to the water in a short time.
Belinda had an indention on A 46 on the day we put the tarp up and has had numerous waterfalls and finally 73 babies to the water very late last night. It was day 55.
Patrol reported hatching at A44 during the night. There was no movement at all at last check last night. It was only day 55. Looks like all made it to the water safely.
Looks like 3 excavations on Friday. Will post times as soon as we work it out. We still have nest that are being watched so it is not too late to come out and help.
The Debs